Soul to Soul

27th November 2023

I finished. Well, almost finished my first death doula course. It took a while to find the right one for me. But I did! The one I chose provided familiarity and structure, together with elements of reflection and expansion.

The structure (10, 2-hour online sessions), format (combination of PowerPoint presentations, homework, and lots of discussions), class size (only three of us), and assessment format (a portfolio with clear guidelines and great freedom to create) were familiar to me as a jobbing academic researcher. That was important to me as my main reason for searching for a teaching course was to be able to sit down and listen and learn.

Old school style.

I wanted to be taught and be able to provide my future clients with some assurance that my passion and my vision for my service have from the start been rooted in ongoing learning and professional development.

The deeply rooted focus on the need to be ever mindful of the wider eco-system in which death doula work takes place and the health and social care strategical, legal and professional scaffolding provided a structure in which to ‘place’ or position my doula role. Before I took the course my understanding of the dying process, the role of death doulas and the wider health and social care eco-system in which we operate was limited. Over the year, the course has allowed me to add depth, context and meaning to the role I want to play and to start to learn the ’dance’ I am set to have with other key professional groups as an end-of-life companion.

The teaching sessions were developed to engender a need to be as expansive as possible, be as mindful of one’s own perceptions, beliefs and positionality as one is of the need to be holding space and walking alongside - and indeed learn from and about – the many different ways people have experienced life and are walking to their deaths.

Over the weekly sessions that took place between July and September, person-centred care; holistic support delivered within family systems; understanding of dying and grieving trajectories; near and after death legal and practical considerations of care all came alive for me. As the talks, discussions, questions and exercises unfolded, I was both enlivened and encouraged by the fact that I did not need to know everything, but rather that I needed to be open-hearted and mindful to listen and learn from each person I work with. Each person I am honoured to work with will be my teacher on their dying and death.

Soul to Soul.

So.

Yes.

The course is over.

Except for the portfolio work.

Consider this my first exercise completed.

In the coming weeks, my portfolio will unfold in this space that I have created. The portfolio consists of 23 questions that I will cluster, wash together and weave into a series of blogs, longings, and lasting notes. Taken together the series of blogs (categorised/tagged as soul companions) is my reflective account of what I have learnt about being a Doula and how I intend applying this programme of learning to my practice

Details on my course: https://soulcompanions.co.uk/jane-depledge/

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